This sumptuous and extraordinarily large Machzor was printed for the use of the Chazan at the request of the Ashkenazi Congregations of a number of leading Italian communities: Venice, Padua, Rovigo, Verona, Mantua, Casale Monferrato, and Gorizia.
The volume is replete with marginalia, recording various local customs, citing works including the Mahril on f. 67 and Kitzur Shaloh on f. 119b. Particularly lengthy marginalia on ff. 191-92 contains a commentary to the piyut “Ta Shema Marei Alma” entitled Ma’aglei Yosher and Derech Chochma. This commentary was published by Isaiah Romanin in his Melitz Yosher (Venice, 1730). Romanin was a member of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto’s secret circle and indeed the work contains an introductory poem by Luzzatto. – Pontremoli was suitably impressed by the clarity of this commentary and so decided to copy it into the present Machzor. The signatory, R. Elisha Chananel Pontremoli of Ivrea (Torino Province of Piedmont) authored a number of rabbinic works which remain in manuscript and are presently located in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. See Ghirondi & Neppi, Toldoth Gedolei Israel Italia, p. 41.
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Lot #169